State Senator Pushing For Efforts To Protect Naval Base Ventura County, California Bases From Closures

Posted on Friday, May 4, 2012 10:57am

A State Senator from Ventura County is pushing for steps to try to protect Naval Base Ventura County, and other military facilities in the state from the federal budget ax.

Republican Senator Tony Strickland of Moorpark asked the governor to authorize the creation of an unpaid, volunteer task force to try to help build the case for protecting the state’s bases. Task forces were set up in 1993 by then governor Pete Wilson, and in 2004 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but those authorizations have since expired..

The Defense Department is proposing to ask Congress for two rounds of base closures, to try to save money. During the last round of base closures, Naval Base Ventura County was one of those reviewed. It lost some positions, some of which were shifted to the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, in the Mojave Desert, but

A resolution authored by Strickland asking the state’s Congressional delegation to lobby for keeping California’s bases open was passed by the State Senate this week.